Diary of a Homemaker: Begin Anew

 

Saturday:  Last year I shared a quote from Faith Baldwin about the New Year having 12 rooms, all freshly cleaned, polished, decluttered and ready for the flowers of the New Year.  I think that idea is worth sharing again because the imagery of that quote appeals to me strongly.  

I had gone further and said I liked to think of the New Year as unfurnished rooms and how much I hoped to fill them with beautiful things.  I failed to do that.  In fact, though I don't choose an annual word to live by, the word beauty came up again and again in my life and my final lesson of the year was that no matter what my circumstances might be, or how far from my own plan my life had gone, beauty was there for the making even out of the harsher things.  

I realized that often, though I longed to do and be better, I was negative about my circumstances.  It wasn't until mid-autumn that I finally got my feet under me and worked daily to ensure that I felt at the end of each day I'd made life better for myself and others.  It meant, at times, that I swallowed hard and pulled up my big girl pants and carried on even though I wanted to whine and kick the walls because nothing went my way.  I finally grew enough to see that I have control over how I feel far more often than I want to admit.  I am not a victim.   I am the author of my life, and pray God, I can at least hang on to this conviction and do better in this new year!

I like a New Year.  I like the possibilities ahead and the 'clean slate' sort of feeling that comes with a fresh start. I am the optimistic sort really, despite my sometimes-cloudy viewpoint about things over which I've had no control.   A New Year is a positive thing in my eyes. 

Our first day has been quiet and lovely.   Yes, I said quiet, even though I had the three across the field here for the morning and through lunch.  It was pleasant and they were happy being here.  Millie was the only one who really played but boy did she have a grand time.   Josh wanted to play a game that is only on my Kindle.  This game is of particular interest because 'the cousins' as he refers to Jd's three all play it, and they like to look for one another online.  It's an especial privilege he has here, for it isn't allowed at home.  His parents are well aware that he has it when he's here and they have no personal objections.  He's just prone to overload his Kindle at home with far too many games that eat up space. Isaac spends his time with a Kindle as well, switching from one You Tube children's program to another but stopping frequently to play with toys.  Mostly they are independently employed while here, but they just enjoy being here and we enjoy having them.

I looked forward to lunch, not because the children don't have Kindles at the table, but because we all sit down together.   This is not a time for just eating with the children.  Mostly it's a time for us to talk.  This is the time we hear so much of their lives, thoughts and such, and we share things from our childhoods that were similar or vastly different.   We all enjoy those meals together and they drag on and on.  Today we were at the table for well over an hour.

All of my children's lives, John and I ate at least two meals a day, breakfast and supper, with the children except on rare occasions.  It was a worthwhile thing to us to sit down as a family and we really enjoyed the talk and discussions and the insights we gained into their lives.  Sometimes we learned things with educational value, when a question was asked about a current event or subject that piqued their interest or they shared something they'd been working on at school.  We had encyclopedias and we'd stop the meal, go look up whatever was in discussion and read out loud about it.  If words came up that someone didn't know, we'd look up the definitions, etc.  We made ground rules in the beginning of our lives together that we'd never argue at the table, that disciplining a child could wait until after a meal unless the behavior was completely out of line (and it seldom was), and that dinner time conversation should be such that everyone left the table satisfied in body and soul.   It was, to be honest, a great contrast from my own childhood family dinners.

Today we discussed cocoa and the history of chocolate.   Josh corrected me on some of my information, wink, but that is fine too.  We BOTH learned something today.  Then he shared something from his schoolwork this past week and I learned another new thing.   Isaac contributed too with a statement about butterflies that I'd never heard.  Millie mostly just smiled and pointed at the things she wanted more of.

I took them home this afternoon and found Sam sitting on the front porch enjoying the air and sun.  It was too warm to suit me outdoors, but I think he was there to wait on the children as he knew about what time I was bringing them home.

I'm afraid John and I were dull as dry beans after the children went home.   We stayed up past midnight last night and are feeling the strain of it today.  We think it was our first proper seeing in of the New Year in all our years together.  Then we lay in bed and talked and talked as though we hadn't just spent the whole evening together talking.  I'm afraid we dragged rather hard, so it was a good thing it was Shabat, and we had nothing planned!

Sunday:  We went off to bed a little earlier last night.  Tired of sleeping poorly this week, I decided that the too warm bedroom was the culprit and turned down the AC two degrees.  I slept very well last night.  I shall try to keep that in mind in the future when we have such heavy humid weather in the cooler months.

This morning we were back on our usual Sunday morning routine.  Up very early so that we could leave home in time to attend the early service at church.  It was still and heavy outdoors even at 8am and we drove over to the church with the AC on in the car.  Just as the pastor stood up to start preaching, rain pounded the building.   It was a pleasant surprise to walk outdoors a little less than an hour later and find the temperatures had dropped to a much cooler range.   We'd gone in wearing shirt sleeves and came out glad of our sweater/jacket.   Honestly, Mama was quite right when she used to tell us that anytime we left home between October and May we'd best take a jacket with us, because the weather could change.  

I'd meant to go for a haircut after church today and it is needed.  But when I checked the app for the salon chain I use, three didn't open until 12N and the other two both had over an hour of wait time.  I told John I'd just skip it today and try to get to it next weekend.  I didn't want to spend half my day away from home today.  Especially since John isn't himself.

John's not feeling 100%.  I'm suspecting he's got the same little nothing illness I had a couple of weeks ago.  I ended up with a slightly stuffy head and a lot of not feeling well enough to do a thing.   No fever, no aches and pains, no coughing or congestion, just not feeling well.

Once we were home, John changed into his pajamas and settled in his chair, after taking some Zinc and D3 and drinking a glass of water.   I changed into my house clothes and set to work.  My targeted area today was to clean up the chifforobe and my plastic storage drawers where I keep sewing and craft supplies.  I came out of the room with my sewing box well organized, the drawers emptied of things left to languish for years.  I made a drawer of craft items that the children will be given access to sometime soon and the rest of the drawers contain my necessary items like the iron and glue gun and patterns and such.  I left the room with a filled small trash can and a handful of items that needed to be stored elsewhere.  

After I put nachos in the oven for lunch, I went ahead and cleaned the fridge out for the week.  I'm sorry to say that things I thought I'd put in the fridge that I couldn't find last week were found this week and it wasn't a pretty sight.  I tossed those items and hated doing it but there you are.  An overfull fridge is just begging for something to be lost and forgotten and that is exactly what happened.  It's no longer overly full and I'm aware of what I need to use in the week or so ahead.  I have far less lettuce than I thought I did.  I'll adjust my menu to reflect that.

The only other tasks before me today are to unload the dishwasher and put those things away, and to sweep the kitchen floor.  I have set out meats to thaw for the menu this next week.   That's usually the place where I fail.  I forget to thaw the meats needed and then I am scrambling to figure out what I might make in less time.